D.P. SATISH writes from New Delhi: Even though Sarekoppa Bangarappa spent almost 15 years in the national capital New Delhi as a four-time MP—he entered the Lok Sabha on a different symbol each time—he actually did not like the capital and its politics.

Bangarappa lived at a sprawling British built bungalow behind the Prime Minister’s official residence for 10 years. This leafy bungalow, enveloped by rare and old trees and full of greenery, was a magnet for peacocks in the area, searching for food or water, and relaxing or dancing in the well protected, manicured lawns of the stately bungalows.

Bangarappa liked these peacocks and had built a pond for them in his lawn. He had instructed his long time secretary Chandrashekhar to arrange grain for the peacocks all through the year. He had also built a 5 foot high water fall built near the pond to enable peacocks to enjoy a shower.

He ordered his secretary to construct a night shelter to protect peacocks from New Delhi’s bitter cold. To his dismay, peacocks ignored his magnanimity and preferred to stay on branches of the tree during night.

Bangarappa used to sit in his lawn watching the peacocks for hours. Sometimes, he used to sing old classics and folk songs in his booming voice. I had the rare privilege of giving him company on many an occasion.

The former President of India Shankar Dayal Sharma had stayed in the same bungalow for over 20 years before Bangarappa. BJP president Nitin Gadkari now boasts the address 13, Teen Murti Lane.

***

Bangarappa missed playing badminton in New Delhi. He hated the extreme weather of north India. He often used to complain that Delhi was not fit for human habitation, and would rarely step out of his bungalow, if he had no work at the Parliament.

Some of his old friends in Delhi like Ghulam Nabi Azad, V.C. Shukla, Kapil Sibal, H.R. Bhardwaj, R K Dhawan, Farooq Abdullahet al used to visit him at his house for filter coffee and idli or dosa.

He would regale them with all kinds of stories, especialy about the man he hated the most, P.V. Narasimha Rao. Sometimes, referring to PVN, he would mutter ‘that bloody bugger is still alive’.

Unlike most Congress leaders, Bangarappa hated sycophancy. He was ready to go only to Sonia Gandhi‘s house. He always expected other leaders to come to his house.

Dr Farooq Abdullah was Bangarappa’s neighbour for many years. They had a very good relationship dating back to their days as fellow chief ministers in the 1990s. Sometimes, they used to return home from the Parliament for lunch in the same car.

Bangarappa had no security and Dr. Abdullah had Z plus security. Sometimes Bangarappa used to joke that it was dangerous for him to travel with Farooq Abdullah as he was facing a threat to his life from Kashmiri militants and it was like inviting a maari home!!

***

When Bangarappa quit BJP to join Samajwadi Party in 2005, I was with him at the SP office on Copernicus Lane near Mandi House. After his induction, we drove to his Teen Murti lane house in his car.

SP chief and the then UP CM Mulayam Singh Yadav was also with him in the same car. Bangarappa did not a know a word of Hindi and Mulayam did not know a word of English. The job of acting as their interpreter fell on me. They discussed their initial days in the socialist movement in the 1960s during that 15-minute drive.

Bangarappa was not impressed by Mulayam’s intellect. Later, he told me in Kannada: ‘Ivanige thaleeli yenoo illa. Ivananthavarigoo UP jana vote haaktharalla (He is a dull head. Even a man like him get elected in UP).”

***

Bangarappa had a fairly big collection of books at his house. He had a wide range of interests. He was fond of books related to science and nature. Of late he had developed a great interest in nuclear science, as a member of parliamentary standing committee on defence.

He even wanted to address international media on India’s need for nuclear bombs and had asked me to introduce him to foreign journalists in New Delhi.

His other habit was studying trees and plants in his compound. He would spend hours talking about them. He even wanted to plant a sapling of the famous Anantha Bhattana Appe midi (a rare variety of tender mango from Sirsi in Uttara Kannada district) in his compound.

Bangarappa was very proud of his knowledge of different types of maavina midi and their taste.

***

He was fond of home cooked food. He liked idli, vada, dosa and pongal for breakfast. He preferred anna, saaru, sambar and curd for lunch and dinner. I was his regular guest whenever he was in New Delhi for the Parliament session or for some meeting. He had a special liking for the people from his place Shimoga.

He was also a huge fan of Hollywood movies. We used to watch movies of James Bond, Clint Eastwood, Hugh Jackman, Daniel Craig, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Julia Roberts and others at his house.

Once, a senior Congress minister from Karnataka also joined us. He was commenting non-stop on Julia Robert’s role in Pretty Woman. Bangarappa, who was totally engrossed in that classic, lost his cool and asked him either to shut up or leave.

He angrily told him that he was unfit to watch an English movie and he should restrict himself to the movies shown on Udaya TV. That minister later became a Karnataka chief minister!

***

Bangarappa had held all prime positions in the state politics. He was a senior minister holding major portfolios like home, revenue and agriculture. He was KPCC president and leader of the opposition. Later the chief minister of state. 7 time MLA and a 4 time MP.

But, he was sad that he did not become a Cabinet minister at the Centre. He had joined the BJP with the sole intention of becoming a Union minister in 2004. But, fate had decided otherwise. BJP lost and Congress came to power. Bangarappa missed his chance.

I suspect he died with that regret.

During 2004-2009, Bangarappa rarely visited New Delhi. He was looking dull and unenthusiastic. His ego and self esteem never allowed him to admit that he was disillusioned. After he lost 2009 Lok Sabha polls from Shimoga, he visited New Delhi just 3-4 times.

During one of his meetings, he rued that dirty politics of Delhi was not for straight forward people like him and he had no hope left in his political career. He truly admired only two leaders Indira Gandhi, who made him KPCC president, and her son Rajiv Gandhi, who made him the Chief Minister. He had contempt for the rest.

He always maintained that he was not corrupt and used to hold his rivals in the party and state politics responsible for the charges against him.

May his soul rest in peace.

File photograph: Former chief minister of Karnataka, S. Bangarappa, who passed away in Bangalore on Monday, clambers on to a bicycle after joining the Samajwadi Party in 2005 (Karnataka Photo News)

66 comments

Bangarappa was a colourful politician. That is what Prajavani describes him. I was surprised by this news today morning. I was a kid when Bangarappa became our CM.

There were a few jokes doing rounds in our school days:
1. When Bangarappa blows the candle during his birthday, it does not go off, why?
Answer: Because when he blows air, it goes to his left and not straight!
2. Who is the GOLD FATHER?
Bangara Appa !!
3. Fill in the blanks, Bangarappa dance.

Yaa, these are all poor jokes. But we have laughed out loud for these jokes when LOL didn’t exist.

I very well remember his mysore connection of RAMYA hotel. He used to visit this hotel, play tennis / badminton there wearing white nicker and t shirt like a real sportsperson and have nice food there. Star of Mysore would be always in the forefront publishing his badminton playing photos.

If i am not wrong, he was the person responsible for the BJP upsurge in Karnataka. His flip flops with Congress and consequent support to BJP was the factor which gave a lead to BJP at various places of EEDIGA community presence. Finally, he lost his popularity due to his own fluctuations and lost against BS Raghavendra. Something unusual and painful for a person with the title “solillada saradaara” .

RIP. Karnataka has lost one more colourful politician like JH Patel and MP Prakash,. I can recall his two years back interview with TV9 where he shared his lifestyle with the reporter. Morning jog, gym, healthy food….

I am trying to figure out whether this piece told me more about Bangaradappa or about DP Satish.

Things I learned.

1. Bangaradappa was blatantly opportunistic and devoid of principles
2. He probably disfigured a heritage Lutyens bungalow
3. James Bond is an actor
4. A taste for English movies is an indicator of refinement
5. Watching Udaya TV is an indicator of lack of refinement
6. Talking to foreign media is a goal in itself
7. D.P.Satish is a fanboy of Bangaradappa which is a shame because he masquerades as a journalist who is supposed to maintain a semblance of objectivity

I take a bow sir, rest in peace. Karnataka is thankful and indebted to one of its great son bangarappa , for the way he dealt with cauvery crisis. He made sure karnataka farmers interest were protected by openly defying biased tribunal instructions. No chief minister has done it . He put a brake to tamilnadu bullying karnataka. As a school student then, bangarappa was a hero for me. Bangarappa showed the political class there is life above politics. His varied interests specially sports and arts makes him a politician class apart. In short socialism,style,substance is sarekoppa bangarappa.

I have heard that Bangarappa was a corrupt CM of Karnataka like others before him and after him, but still thought he was not the most corrupt… but reading through the comments that followed his obituary in Times of India today, there were hardly 3 or 4 comments out of 100 which paid tributes to him.. All the rest recalled the atrocities he committed … and now this piece in Churumuri written by D.P.Satish… I take it that Mr Satish was recalling his association with Bangarappa in a somewhat sentimental mood.. and therefore could not be objective or did not want to be objective…

My recollection of Chief Minister Bangarappa is during my interaction with him one evening in New Jersey, (early 1990’s). We had arranged a reception for him (on behalf of Kannada Association) and his entourage (which included Ramesh as Culture Minister, few IAS officers, and one Mr. Arunachalam of BEML Lay out who had accompanied Mr. Bangarappa to sell residential plots to NRIs (now he is called Dr. Arunachalamm and there are circles and roads named after him in Rajarajeshwari Nagar, in Bangalore).

I remember still the conversation where Mr. Bangarappa was soliciting investments from NRIs, particulalry in the Power Sector, and he said he will help with all necessary statuatory and bureaucratic processes and make decisions quickly. But he also said to a group of the investors, that there will be “additional 15 to 20 percent cost”…above the project cost. So one can decide, what this meant!!

But I must also confess, that he spoke very well to an audience of almost 400 people and that is the only time I have heard him.

If he has done good things as a politician, let us thank him, and who are we to judge his imperfections, if any!!

@Anonymous guy, precisely what this country needs is education on corruption. Now IPS Officers, Chief Ministers can’t distinguish between what is corrupt & what is not. With education, even simple people can easily make out the difference.

Success cannot be reached through cross roads.Devaraje Urs sowed the seed of corruption and caste politics, and nurtured it. His followers took the same path.On lookers,also experimented and found short way to success.Late Sri.Bagarappa is not an exception. Though corrupt, he had dreams and concern for the down trodden. We missed a colourful personality. Let his soul rest in peace.

It is surprising that once a person dies, how wonderful, fantastic and interesting anecdotes and stories come out (some of them cooked up!) glorifying the person, bringing out his intellectual part, making him a hero, showing him as a darling of masses, protector of the downtrodden, lover of art, music, literature, sports etc. etc.! (Till that he is a joker, corrupt, just another politician, did nothing for the people or the state). Bangarappa was bang right when he observed “ivan thaleli enoo illa, ivananthavarigoo, jana vote haaktaare”.

Poor D P satish , such sycophancy in a journalist who is supposed to be neutral ! Looks like he is paying his bills now for all the free lunches he had with Bangarappa earlier in delhi.

Videos of his sycophant flunkey making Bangarappa wear socks & shoes and tie his lace every day before he left for campaigning was shown on tv9 recently. and DP Satish says bangarappa did not like sycophants ,

Bangarappa is supposed to be a socialist . May be the first socialist who has a flunkey tie his shoe laces….

there s not one mention of various corruption charges against him in teh article & satish still calls himself a journalist

If Bangarappa thinks he is not corrupt, I think I am Mohandas Gandhi and Sachin Tendulkar and… C’mon just because Bangarppa died, doesnt meant that this writer has to kill the truth. Yes, we get it, corruption is relative too, compared to my Heros, the Sons of the night soil a.k.a Gowda clan, Bangarppa may indeed be a saint!

Wasn’t Shri, Bangarappa responsible for de-notifying the ‘minimum radius’ for establishing a bar/liquor shop? I recall that there was an exponential rise of liquor stores & bars in Bangalore after he came to power.

One of the biggest black mark of this chap was the voilence perpetrated during the cauvery riots by his cronies Slum Ramesh and K J George. Incidentally, Slum Ramesh was the Minister for Kannada and Culture when he orchestrated the riots and K J George was a full time youth minister and a part time sandalwood smuggler/rowdy

Very good article mr d. P. Satish, highlighting the positive and interesting facets of a great mass leader . When artcles praising some of software honchos and corporates appear in media ,people go gaga , burn crackers, raise a toast ,name their houses and kids after them. But when something good is written about a socialist politician,they squirm. Devegowda and bangarappa—true mass leaders .

A five star hotel-type campus gets inagurated in mysore, (owners call it training centre) english media praises the software company with glorious words,calls it the greatest thing to have happened to india. A tamil actor’s movie about robots gets released,media projects it as the greatest movie ever made ,and the actor is made the person of the year. But when a journalist writes about pro-farmer ,not too media savvy, unsophisticated leaders like bangarappa,devegowda , journalist is branded sychophant. Till the time the so called elite middle class is biased this way, laloo,mulayam,mayawati,ajith singh will continue to dominate indian power politics.

Once Dr. Raja Ramanna mentioned that Bangalore has become
“Bar Galore”…this was when Bangari was giving away liquour license to all and sundry and making huge sums of money in the process. He also had the liqour barons adikeshavulu and hari khoday produce a movie with his son kumar bangarappa as the hero. So much for our socialist (?) Bangarappa. The duo Bangarapp and gundurao were notoriuos in their hey days and were responsible for rowdyism to take a firm root in Karnataka..

Your so-called “socialist politicians” are the worst species of human being in existence. Ideally, a concentration camp should be established to house all these socialist and communists. JNU should be burnt down too.

So-called “Socialist politicians” are the bane of India, and they are the reason we were kept backward for decades. Only when the influence of these useless “socialist politicians” began to reduce, India began to make some progress.

Mr Vinay ,
What is ur problem buddy. do u hate socialists and communists only, or Socialism and Communism in general?. how can u put “useless” tag to any one whom u dislike. as for as i know everything in this world is just “Relative” some people see NRN as useless guy same as u find others. We cannot stop people in thinking like that. u are trying to dominate your view upon others and if u cannot achieve,u frustrates. Try to respect others view as you do it to your own. Then your views also get respected by others.

Mr.vinay, some politicians coming from socialist ideology ,went adrift ,made compromises for power . But still leaders like devegowdw,laloo,bangarappa,mulayam have made contributions for the development of poorer sections of society. Atleast they are not as dangerous as supremely capitalistic software corporates, road developers( nice) who in the guise of achievers are slowly destroying the very basis of constitution. Laloo, mulayam ,devegowda spoke brilliantly during the lokpal debate in parliament. Atleast i am convinced gowda -laloo-mulayam trioka has a very important role to play in national politics.

Vinay, there are no socialist politicians in India, we descended past that stage decades ago. Only “criminalist” ones. What do you call a society when everything needs a bribe right up to our flawed justice system, our leaders, our police, and every single government employee who is paid to do something but demands 10-100x that amount and a well known tout to just look at you. The rupee is in free fall and our dear leader sits on his throne, uttering meaningless sounds trying to look as though he is doing something.

If you think I am talking nonsense about our corrupted judiciary, talk to someone inside the legal system and ask about the selection of a high court judge – you will be shocked at how much money changes hands.

The piece by Satish gives another angle of the complex personality of the maverick politician. Bangarappa has to be assessed for whatrever he was and not for whatever he ought to be.

Bangarappa’s has been classic case of how the superego spoiled promising caeer of politician with immense potentials. He had the guts gumption and vision on certain aspects but the supeego from which he suffered proved to be undoing in politics. Besides his assessment of men and matters was poor. It was because of this he preferred to be surrounded by psycophants than men of merit and commitment.

As Chief Minister his interaction with media was quite excellent. Once I remember we had a more than 45 minutes of interaction by standing on the balcony of the Inspection Bunglow. Whenever thequestion proved to be inconvenient he would often say “It is a right question at the wront time” or “Right question to a wrong person”.

For his love for music, Bangarappa did not rise to occasion when the maestro of classical music Basavaraj Rajguru died in a hospital in Bangalore. Not only he ignored the entreaties of the maestro to visit him but he and his government ducked the request for proper transport arrangement to carry the body to the home town Dharawad. The body had to be brought in a taxi.

The spread of breakfast when he was on tour was only seen to be believed. Whatever you say would be there on the table right from usual idli, dosa upma, unusal items like the Gundupongal, (it is called as Phud in Northern Karnataka), puffed rice items, avalakki and jawar roti or chapati and what not).

He had the capacity to enjoy a joke at himself. These were the days when his government had introduced several novel socio welfare measures all starting with first kannada alphabet “Aa” -like Aradhana and all that.. During one of his vists to Dharwad district one of presseman asked him with tongue in between the cheek three more schemes in this fashion like Amrit – (giving free quarter bottle to the poor), Anand (for a pleasant night life) and Aarogya (for treatment as a consequence of the first three). Any other Chief Minsiter would have simply become redfaced and exploded in anger. Not Bangarappa. He burst out with hearty laughter to enjoy the joke.

With all his frallities, he was a person who could not be ignored. You either hate him or adore. There is nothing in between.

There were very few socilaists in the bygone era, madhu limaye, acharya kripalani come to my mind. Other than that all the state socialist leaders were only namesake. Look at J H Patel who claimed he was a disciple of Gopala Gowda..he was the worst CM and leader that Karnataka has seen, who went on a TV show to proclaim that he was close to wine and women. This when he was still the CM of the state….The less said about Laloo,Mulayam,mayawati,ajith singh, devegowda, kumaranna the better.

Hallin Daaktre, have the courage and fortitude to call these scums what they are. Just because they are dead doesnt mean they have to be turned into Saints overnight. The Journo who wrote this piece of trash ‘highlighting’ possibly made up nice-ities of peacocks and plants is another prime example of the chelas who hang around these netas for scraps. These so called socialist hypocrites are plain and simple, Gawda, yeddi, reddy, all hypocrites, dishonest corrupt self serving cheating a-holes masquerading as socialist ‘leaders’ of the downtrodden.

Enough with all these “isms”. You can choose to give a name tag of “socialist” to anything you fancy. The reality however, is that “Indian socialism”, or socialism as defined by Indian politicians like Mulayam, is the worst sort of regressive crap, and has nothing good in it – zilch, nada, nil.

You say: “are you talking about what you perceive as your/your family’s/friends’ progress as India’s progress”? Ree swami, the truth is that our so-called Indian “socialist politicians” are the ones who propagate a doctrine/policy where a minority are enriched and the masses remain desperately poor.

Just look at Dr. Ramesh’s roll call of favourites. Laloo, Mulayam, Devegowda. These are the kind of people we have as our Indian “socialists”. Ban English and computers – this was Mulayam’s election agenda. Laloo – fucked up Bihar like nobody’s business. And there are people who want these politicians to rule, and provide intellectual arguments in favour of them.

dr ramesh:

Ree daaktar avare – you have made your preference clear. You would prefer Mulayam Singh Yadav, who would ban English and Computers, rather than the “highly capitalistic IT companies”. Unfortunately for you, you will continue to wallow in resentment and frustration – hardly anyone in the nation agrees with you – you are in a hopeless minority. And oh – lest you didn’t know – the massive migration into Bangalore that you keep moaning and whining about, is the direct result of the shitpot that the Bimaru states have been made by your beloved “socialist politicians”.

Shivu:

It is all about what one means when he uses terms like “socialism”, “capitalism”, etc. When I refer to “socialist politicians”, I refer to people such as those in Dr. Ramesh’s roll call of favourites. If you prefer to refer to them as “criminalist politicians”, that’s fine.

Emptymind:

Yeah yeah – I am trying to “dominate” my view on others. Same as all the others on this page, and on every blog/discussion. Duh. Not that ranting on a blog is going to change anything. On the ground, a concentration camp should be built in the Andamans to house all these so-called “socialist politicians” and their coterie. That is the only way to rid the nation of this cancer, this poison.

Gowda fan, myself along with scores of people feel the same way when sections of english media endlessly praise software czars and corporates even going to the extent of suggesting their name for presidency. Because these corporates control english media through stakes and benami holdings, darker side of their business practices go unreported. At least devegowda,hdk ,mulayam face public wrath , are open to public scrutiny and have to convince people to get reelected. If they had done nothing for the people, people are not so ignorant to keep them in electoral politics for decades. Likes of jaitley, sushma,seetharaman,kejriwal ,chandan mitra have become darlings of english media, whats their achievement in public life?.

Ree hallu daaktre, your moral equivalency between “software czars” and the likes of Mulayam, Laloo etc. is mind boggling, to say the least. Sometimes I wonder if you really believe in everything you type, or if you deliberately say this stuff to irritate the readers.

Your beloved “socialist politicians” have to “convince the people” and “face public scrutiny” – really? What about the booze, sarees, cash, etc. these people distribute to win elections? What about the goondaism and thugs these people perpetrate? What about the billions of dollars of black money these people accumulate, to win the next election? What about the crime and criminals these people shelter?

Do you watch Hindi movies? If so, do watch the movie “Apharan” or “Gangaajal”. These movies accurately depict what the state of Bihar was under your beloved Laloo. What he turned that state into, is something that needs to be experienced to be believed. Ask any random Bihari labourer in Bangalore about the conditions there in the 1990s, under Laloo. He will tell you.

Hallu Daaktre, if you were a dentist in Laloo’s Bihar in the 1990s you would have been kidnapped off the streets and forced to pay up a hefty ransom. You would have to pay part of your monthly earnings to thugs on a regular basis. And make no mistake – all this loot was shared right up till the top, till Laloo. And here, I find you singing praises of him. Unbelievable.

Let us get one thing clear – whatever the faults of the “software czars” may be (and there are lot of faults, not denying it), their net contribution to Indian society is positive. The net contribution of your beloved “socialist politicians” is negative in the extreme.

Only a crazy person, or someone with a vested agenda, will disagree with this.

Vinay, i am not supporting the feudalistic brand of power politics laloo and mulayam have been practising for ages. Biharis have voted out laloo for his misdeeds. Kannadigas voted out jd s in the last vidhana sabha election. This is precisely what i mean to say , they are accountable to people and cant take their support for granted. Devegowda has been in politics for more than four decades, do you think people who voted for him all these years are illiterate. No chance.satyam ramalinga raju cheated people,bangalore based software company is gobbling up thousands of acres of farmer land, yet english media treats them with kid gloves. When govt wanted to bailout satyam,kingfisher airlines with our hardearned money, laloo , mulayam,devegowda and left parties opposed it. Biased english media and corporates support bailout for mallya but oppose food security bill for poor peole. That is where devegowda ,bangarappa, mulayam and laloo become very important for indian politics. Today it is considered cool to praise mallya and nrn and not so cool to support the likes of devegowda, kurien or swaminathan.

If NRN were to get caught in a scam tomorrow, he will face a fate similar to Raju in the media, rest assured. As far as so-called “land grabbing” is concerned – is it really “land grabbing”? Even I feel that the government should not provide lands to Infy at cheap rates. Infy should go out and buy the land at market price if they want to make giant campuses – chances are, they will switch to skyscrapers/highrises instead in such a case. But then, all they are doing is taking advantage of the current laws and land acquisition process. Change the laws first. Don’t expect the media to just start abusing NRN unless the law itself is changed. After all, Infy, like any other private company, tries to maximize its profits. If you leave them such opportunities in the law, don’t expect them not to make use of it. You and I would do the same.

For the record, I am completely opposed to any kind of bailout for Kingfisher. If Mallya cannot run the business, let him sell it off. And btw, in your “English media”, there have been strong views expressed AGAINST bailout too. Why don’t you read some of ToIs articles about this? All available online.

Regarding your “food security bill” – please don’t buy into the crap that it is about “helping poor people”. The Indian state can’t even scratch its arse properly, and you expect them to take charge of such a massive food distribution program? Have we not seen enough of such failed socialist policies?

Even after seeing what all these failed socialist policies have done to our nation, I wonder why people still bat for such bills in the name of “helping the poor”. Nonsense!! It will help babus to get fat on more and more corruption, and set up more hoarding and black market chains.

Here we are hoping for the limiting of babudom and government bureaucracy in Indian society – it is the only way forward for India to progress. Why support attempts to entrench the all-pervasive government and babudom?

Accountability – really, when “socialist politicians” buy votes with booze and liquor, and enforce their writ with goonda power.

And what’s with your obsession with “software coolies”? You are a coolie yourself, so what’s the deal? Pissed off because you lost out in some “aansite aapaartunity”? Is that what makes you so bitter and self hating?

Or is it because you remain stuck in code coolie work, while several others (including me) have moved up in the value chain?

Mr. Vinay, i am not envious of software sector or software professionals. They work ,they earn as most of us do. But it is travesty of justice to see corporates like nrn ,mallya giving guest lectures on corruption and governence. I definitely feel they have seriously overestimated their worth and importence ,media also contributing to this. Extension of night life in bangalore becomes more important to software czars ,prepared to even lobby for drinks ,disco full night. Plight of poor farmers striving to make ends meet look like menace to them. That is where devegowda, charan singh ,bangarappa become very crucial for democracy. Hopefully forthcoming uttar pradesh elections will provide answers to right wing politicians and corporates.

Accountability = stand in elections, if people dont like what you did last time, they vote you out, and you are out of power. As it says in the constitution. The progress you talk of, be it for IT guy like you or farmer is a based on this. The outsourcing IT service industry you seem to think is Bangalore’s savior also happened from this system. Why is that difficult for you to understand? Maybe you need to get out of your cubicle a little more and think beyond the low end coolie work you do.

The politicians are not going away. They are a reflection of society. The laws they have passed and the work they have done is available to their voters in the public domain too. If a person is happy with booze and votes for a politician based on that, it is their right and wish. At least the politician is giving them booze. And as dr. Ramesh says, people are not fools, they learn with time. While the politician is thinking of how to retain power he is also thinking of his constituency. Go talk to people in the constituency, see what they say and see what is happening in their lives.

Blaming socialist politician or some other label for our inherent problems gets us nowhere.

I agree that the politicians are a reflection of society and “blaming politicians” for our trouble will get us nowhere. I myself have made this point several times in the past on this same blog.

But you need to understand a few things, if you can get out of your self-hate and bitterness in life due to being stuck in a cubicle and licking the white man’s ass to survive.

If everything in life is about “politicians are accountable in elections, vote them out if you don’t like them”, then we might as well stop asking our elected reps any questions at all. I remember a hardcore Congress asslicker whom I had a discussion with a few months back. His argument for everything bad that the NehruGandhi family did to the nation was, “The people liked them, they voted them in again and again. Who are you to question the Indian people and their choice? Are you anti-democracy? How dare you?”.

You talk about people “learning with time”. If people don’t have access to communication and information, people don’t know any better. A poor, desperate and uneducated population is the best thing from a politician’s perspective.

And if you take your head and peep out for a moment, you will realize that more than “progress” it is “populism” that the politician wants. All this “IT progress” that you speak of in Bangalore – will further “IT progress” tangibly benefit a politician who drives it? Think about it.

Actually, this whole “socialist politician” discussion was introduced by Dr. Ramesh here. As you keep babbling in your occasional half-assed pearls of wisdom, “ranting on an internet forum gets us nowhere”. I suggest you take your own advise and go back to your code shit-cleaning cubicle job. Your white masters will be back tomorrow, after the holiday season, time for you to get back in position.

Agreed that some corporate honchos have “seriously overestimated their own importance”. Who is responsible for that though? The hagiography that our people and media indulge in.

Our stupid journalists saw all these spanking clean new offices, relatively higher salaries (those days, in 2001-2005) and were bowled over by all that. They began placing NRN and co. on a pedestal and treating him like an expert on all things under the sun.

Our Bangalore public was also highly besotted with “IT industry” during the early years from 2001-2005 – from auto drivers to landlords to bureaucrats.

Mr Vinay . i assume socialism arrived india at early 19th century. before that india was under Fuedalism and Casteism Or Monarchy.
Fuedalism is the main responsible for the division of people in this country and their suffering. I agree many corrupt politician including who call themselves Socialist are also feudalistic and corrupt who use it for political milage. But Socialism has been a great boon to many landless people who could own the land where they were forced to work for their wages. u are telling as if india was shining before commence of Socialism. U cant fool every one by spilling your half cooked beans on Socialism.

And i know Feudalism phylosophy will concor with Capitalism on one thing “Division of Labour or People”. I dont have problem if it is based on talent. if it is based on something else it will become “Neo Feudalism”.
You r suffering from selective amnesia. why blame only “socialist politician? What about saffronist.? Are they not selling liquor to buy votes?

Next karnataka election whenever it happens will show us who is what and the direction india is heading towards, remember most corrupt state in india( thanks to bjp) will be voting. Mr.vinay it was a good discussion. With convergencs ofsome opinions and differnces. As it should be .

I am tired of all these “isms” and their precise definitions. I don’t care what “socialism” means in the textbook sense, “capitalism”, “statism”, “feudalism”, “neo feudalism” and so on.

Practically speaking, all I care about is, the Indian version of ‘socialism’, which was practiced in the NehruGandhi era, is the worst thing that happened to our nation. I am referring to the licence-permit raj.

If it offends your sensibilities to refer to that model as “socialism”, tell me an alternative term for it. It is the politicians who practiced that kind of governance who called it “socialism”, not me.

No Karnataka Chief Minister in the past had challenged the Government of India and the Prime Minister to dabble in Karnataka’s rights over the Cauvery waters as Bangarappa had done through the instrumentality of his Government’s Ordinance.

The Ordinance had freezed the Cauvery waters dispute pegging the State’s share of the waters as also the extent of its irrigation at a prescribed level.

Bangarappa had the Governor issue the Ordinance as an extreme measure having been driven to the wall by the ‘unhelpful and hostile’ attitude of the Government of India and of the Tamilnadu Government towards Karnataka on the issue of sharing the Cauvery waters among the riparian States. The judiciary also had been banned from adjudicating on the dispute.

The Ordinance had come in the wake of Karnataka’s opposition to the appointment of the Cauvery Waters Dispute Tribunal and its interim award, followed by the unsuccessful importunities of Karnataka against the Centre’s action in gazetting the award. In protest action, Bangalore had plunged into outbreaks of violence and arson and loot in December, 1991.

The Ordinance had caused great consternation and embarrassment to the Government of India. The President had to intervene and invoke the Constitutional provision of referring the Karnataka Ordinance for the Supreme Court’s advice as to its Constitutionality, etc.

The Ordinance had been regularised through a Bill and put on the Statute Book, later.
ence of the State. It had also come down heavily on the action and had passed severe strictures on the ground of among other things, sabotage of the spirit of federalism, etc.

The Karnataka Act was later repealed after a long time under a decision of the successor government.

In the case of Mr. Bangarappa, the Supreme Court had attacked him for the Cauvery ordinance which had asked even the Supreme Court to keep off the Cauvery waters dispute!

The 79 year old flamboyant S Bangarappa died of health problems in Bangalore on Sunday night.

The Supreme Court, in giving its opinion, had held the Ordinance as violated the Constitution and that it was beyond the legislative compet

Yes, you are correct , I am the same person. I was away on tour of Gujarat for 15 days. I do not have a laptop with net connection to instantly write a comment as things happen while I am on tour.
I am happy that you are one of the person who is reading my blog ‘faxnews’.
By the way could you identify yourself as you are writing in a pseudo name. You can email me on mk_vidyaranya@yahoo.co.in

D P Satish’s article on Bangarappa is well written.
Regarding Mr Shankar’s statement that “there s not one mention of various corruption charges against him in the article & Satish still calls himself a journalist, I would like to state each coin has two faces and Mr Satish might have given details of only one side.
It is better if Sathis completes the story by giving details of the other side of the coin too. No one can agree that Bangarappa was non-corrupt. But compared to politicians of today, he was a shade low in corruption. Come on Mr Satish write the other side and show that you were not a sycophant of Bangarappa as alleged in the article.

Fundamentally,
* Communists want the country to be based on dictatorship of the working class (aka China).
* Socialists want anything private confiscated by Govt without compensation (aka against capitalism).

Communists & Socialists have no place in parliamentary democracy.

Now that communists & socialists continue to exist in India, what is their Ideology? Plan? Action?

Basically they are confused and hence try to disrupt whatever that is working. Like they say in Hindi, they are like, dhobi ka kutta na ghar ka na ghaat ka‘

@Nastika
Socialism doesnt need any attestment from any one. The beauty of it lies in radatiting equinmity towards all entities- living creatures, non-living creatures, caste, class, gender, race. its only intention is to maintain balance between them.
Yes it competes with capitalism in regulating the greediness of capitalist who strives hard to over-exploit the natural resources he finds. whats wrong in it? the scarcity of the natural resources which is the consequence of its direct explitation results in price rise even for basic necesseties like fuel,water,food, land is evident with us. here the intention of socialism is only to check greediness of people whether it is harmony with nature. and yes if u doent like word “socialism” u can have “Controlled Capitalism” which is just moderate version of Socialism.

Sir, get the meaning of “Working class” please dont go through any capitalist or brahmanical varnashrama lexicon. dont need even to go China or West Bengal. In pure philosophical socialism the “working class” is one who never diffrerentiate themselves based on nature of work he do- mental or physical, high or low, king or slave, manager or clerk, Primeminister or sweeper. Every body works for their daily bread. no problem if u call it has the dictatership of “working class”. here the “working class” the every active citizen constitutes “parlimenentary democracy”. u cannot twist this truth to deny the rights of socialist.

Coming to your last argument please contemplate more on capitalism and socialism. who is really under confusion? the climate change because of pollution of everything, war on iraq to get petrol which is going to exhaust next 50 years, worrying and even changing the management styles to prevent frequent ghost called recesion. Go and visit bellaries barren land. how few capitalist have raped this land for their own profit.

U can say why socialism fails in present day politics? the answer is simple the socialism tell us “controll greed” the same krishna told in bagawatgeetha to controll mind to do his duties without desire of return back or profit” but the wicKed mind of man cannot get this but fall under MAYAJAAL of Capitalism. this is certainly not the failure of Socialism or Bagavatgeetha.

Dear All,
This is a serious issue which we need to think with high priority as in future it will lead to big disaster for all of us, i am talking about dirty politics and politicians of karnataka, were these lofers are playing vulgar political game with all of us we are supporting them by keeping our sence shut, and i am very much worried as our watchdog of society i.e, media people are giving free publicity to these bludy politicians these media people are much concerned about what extent these politicians can do bad things, and such things are highlighed and they are focussed as the heros of society.

Iwould like to request media people please publizsise or focus on good politicians who have sacrificed their personal life to the socienty and they are working for humanity society without any fruitfull.
i would give some name of such good politicians who have really served and till active in their serive with all hurdles infront of them

HALADI SRINIVAS SHETTY-KUNDAPURA CONSTITUENCY

LALAJI MENDON- KAPU

A T RAMASWAMY-EX MLA JDS

YOGESH BHAT- MANGALORE

MANY SUCH OTEHRS PLEASE PRINT OR PRESENT A PROGRAME OF SUCH GOOD POLITICIANS AND FOCUS THEM AS FUTURE HEROS OF OUR SOCIETY

Hi there
senior minister watching pretty woman wit bangarappa was n dharam singh.moily never dared to sit along with bangarappa.
whatevr all d guyz shout above should think one thing,i e bangarappa lived all d time as his heart say.